Since I’m more and more convinced that the only way I’ll be able to keep this up is if I don’t actually only talk about new gear. There’s already sites that already do that, and far better than I could. Plus, I’m really trying to curb unnecessary gear-lust - at least until someone starts paying me for it. But if you’re reading this, chances are you know that for the next few hours (days?) the hype will be flying thick and fast, with all sorts of software and hardware you didn’t know you needed but can absolutely cannot live without. Perhaps I’ll comment on some of it, but mostly I’m just going to figure out how to make work my new Novation ReMote 25 (bought from Sweetwater for a song; guess they have new products coming out).

Of course I am looking forward to the Cakewalk updates.

Great piece up at Create Digital Media reacting to M-Audio’s hype for their new product to be unveiled during NAMM. More than just looking the marketing hype in the eye and asking it to get real, it brings up an issue that speaks to me, a non-DJ. Interoperability.

The writer is speaking of it in terms of the DJ software/hardware market, which is something about which I know very little. I can see where proprietary DJ systems sorta defeat the point - shouldn’t a DJ just be able to show up with a crate of vinyl and possible a mixer and, you know, rock the party? But interoperability is rampant in the music technology business, and ultimately, I see it getting worse before it gets better. It’s not entirely analogous, but I’ve railed before about the need for a non-proprietary plugin standard, that isn’t tied to one company for development. If I were a DJ, I would probably feel the same way about how I was forced to use one particular system.

Here’s a good visual explanation of why it was almost impossible to listen to the last Green Day record from start to finish:
(Video after the jump)
(more…)

While I haven’t watched this whole vid, there’s a bunch of haters over at gearslutz who’ve been ripping on this thing for like a week. They seem to think a lot of the information is dodgy and probably not the best way to go about mixing drums.

Maybe I’ll watch to learn (supposedly) learn what not to do.

As much as I don’t particularly care for the Gearwire videos (I have yet to watch one where I actually learn something new), I respect them for trying to create something new for us audio-porn crowd. I have recently been cleaning and re-arranging my studio and had to shuffle around about 3 years worth of British audio mags and a lot of EM. It really sobered me up to how ephemeral most of this “information” is in the hyper-accelerated world we in which we operate. Tutorials for Absynth 1, press-releases or reviews for software that doesn’t even exist anymore. How to use VSTs in Sonar2! It’s great that all those talented British and European designers have work, but this all becomes so much landfill fodder. Better to have this stuff on the web, where, at worst, it just drops off google’s page ranking - and I don’t have to figure out what do with 100 pounds of obsolete magazines.

As I said, I like the Gearwire guys simply cause they’re out there just doing it. It’s far better than this sad little blog. But keep in mind, watching this probably shouldn’t be taken in the same vein as one of those how-to-mix DVDs with an respected mixing engineer. (Though I’ve no experience with those either.)

There are, however, some comic moments. About 6:37 the guy doing the mixing admits he has his headphones on backwards (which we’ve all done), and as he switches his headphones around. As he does so the guy to his side takes his off to check and make sure they’re on correctly. For some reason this just struck me as funny.

Nice use of Sonar though.